tec h EXPO 2001 CREATURE FEATURE by Valerie St. Pierre San Diego State University Figure 1 PHOTO: TOM THATCHER Figure 2 Figure 3 46 S U M M E R 2 0 0 1 TD & T ...we were able to quilt in veins and bone-like structures by piercing all the way through the arms and legs...thread ends became spiky little hairs. When preparing to design costumes for Caryl Churchill's The Skriker, I noticed that the script called for some interesting design challenges, not the least of which was a decrepit urban fairie world that included things called "thrumpins." Katharine Briggs in her book, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and other Supernatural Creatures, provided some helpful clues: "...an instrument of fate called the thrumpin who attended every man like a dark guardian angel with the power to take away his life." The script says these thrumpins come in riding on the backs of businessmen; it was also requested that they move and talk. My initial impression was that the thrumpins would have some sort of mechanism allowing the actors to move their limbs at will. That idea was quickly discarded since the actors were doing a series of quick choreographed movements; not to mention the fact that all of the businessmen were also cast as some of the more gruesome fairies found only a few pages